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Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. (File photo by Lance Neverson/Facebook)
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. (File photo by Lance Neverson/Facebook)
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Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has portrayed the main opposition New Democratic Party as too disunited to lead the nation, as his Unity Labour Party seeks a fifth consecutive five-year term in office.

As general elections near, Gonsalves is presenting his Unity Labour Party (ULP) as the natural party of governance in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. 

“…  the ULP is self-evidently a united political outfit, singing from the same philosophical and programmatic song sheet agreed upon by all under the leadership of De Comrade,” Gonsalves told the party’s virtual political meeting Wednesday night in a recorded speech as he was still under quarantine after a trip to the United States.

He said the “most compelling evidence” of the party’s unity is the fact that it has remained in government with a one-seat majority for almost 10 years.

“And we have run the government with aplomb and unity with no fissures. And we have achieved mighty things during this period for people,” he said.

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The prime minister noted that on three occasions before — in 1966, 1972, and 1998, governments with one-seat majorities–once under Ebenezer Theodore Joshua and twice under James Mitchell — one-seat majority governments collapsed within one to two years.

“My one-seat government is now 10 years. Internally, the ULP is solid as a rock,” said Gonsalves, 74, who is still at the helm of the party a full five years after asking the electorate to give him another term so he can transition to younger leadership.

“And such unity in a political party is vital for its functioning in government. You do not gamble on this, I say to you, my dear voters; disunity leads inevitably to confusion and poor governance; so, too, weak leadership. And what you see in opposition is what you would get worse in government.”

Gonsalves invited voters to see the NDP “in its disunited state” and said that the party is being held together by two things –“anti-Ralph bile and its thirst and hunger for power.

“Inside of the NDP, St. Clair Leacock must often feel as though he is a political orphan, or to use the jaundiced language of yesteryear, a bastard child, politically speaking,” he said of the Central Kingstown MP, who is one of the party’s two vice-presidents.

He said that in 2016, when Leacock placed himself in the leadership ring to succeed then NDP president, East Kingstown MP Arnhim Eustace, “the party machinery and the top echelons of the NDP ganged up against him.

“He knows that, I know that, the whole country knows that..” Gonsalves said, adding that West Kingstown MP, Daniel Cummings — who became NDP chairman during that leadership transition — “was clearly assigned a job as political hatchet man on Leacock.

“On NICE Radio on the NDP-sponsored programme, Cummings declared with the usual venom and anger in his voice, ‘I will not trust Leacock with power. I cannot trust that man. He’s power hungry. He cannot lead the NDP.’ That’s what he said,” Gonsalves said.
He said Cummings “proceeded to damn Leacock in terms no one in the UL P has ever done and I would not — some things they say about him from inside, I wouldn’t even think about saying them to my friend, St. Clair Leacock,” Gonsalves said.

He concluded that “there is no love, love lost between Cummings and Leacock.

“They may grin up with one another for appearances sake, but they loathe each other; no matter who among them may try to dispute this.”

The prime minister said that one year later, Leacock was still in the proverbial “NDP doghouse” when, again, the party machinery the NDP leadership and the fellow traveling internet crazies ganged up against Leacock when he sought the election as one of the two vice presidents of the NDP.”.

Gonsalves said that North Leeward MP, Roland “Patel” Matthews was unopposed for one position and for the second, Leacock was challenged by a political neophyte then Senator Marcia S. Barnwell.

Notwithstanding the prime minister’s comments, the truth of the matter is that both positions were up for election and both Leacock and Matthews, as incumbents were seeking re-election while Barnwell was challenging for one of the seats.

Gonsalves said that Leacock “rightly considered this contestation against him to be insulting and an affront to his dignity.

“He decided to make a bad as the street in Sharpes would say. [NDP president and Opposition Leader] Lorraine Friday hastily and meekly summoned peace talks between Leacock and himself. A peace offering was made by Friday. A tenuous fragile peace was concocted and Leacock was elected as one of the vice presidents.”

Gonsalves said that still, Leacock “is not made to feel welcomed in the very party he has given his all for”.

The ULP leader said it was instructive that earlier this year, Leacock abstained from the vote when the opposition proposed Barnwell to fill the post of Speaker of the House of Assembly.

Gonsalves continued:

“Leacock’s supporters within the NDP insist that white shadows run the NDP. They say that the NDP big shots claim that Leacock is too out spoken for their liking on the issue of the influence of race and ethnicity in the NDP.

“The white shadows in the NDP are believed to run the gamut of the financiers of the NDP, the foreign white influencers in the NDP, including those in Bequia for Lorraine Friday, those lining up to sell our country’s passport and citizenship for filthy lucre and historically, the white racists and imperialists hover about this Caribbean.”

Gonsalves said that these “white shadows” “always see the NDP as their natural ally in St. Vincent and Grenadines against the ULP.

“And as you know, for the ULP, Black Lives Matter,” he said.

He said that inside the NDP there are “complaints that Cummings has become uncontrollable.

“His angry and hate-fuelled outbursts are becoming more pronounced. He’s not listening to any restraining voice. His alternating bouts of mellow, dramatic calmness and intemperate angry outbursts worry even the NDP and its supporters.

“Additionally, the pressure from the ULP and Debbie Charles is getting to him in West Kingstown and he no longer has John Horne to help him keep his composure.”

Charles, a ULP senator and former teacher, who boldly told the parliament that at home she is referred to as “Hitler” because of her ability to ferret out information, will make her second attempt to unseat Cummings.

Gonsalves said Cummings  “feels besieged and he’s lashing out to all and sundry in and out of his party…”

He further said:

“Among the rest of the NDP, confusion abounds. In the absence of strong leadership from Lorraine Friday, everyone in the top rungs of the NDP is doing his or her own thing.”

18 replies on “Gonsalves portrays NDP as too disunited to govern”

  1. Urlan Alexander says:

    Absolutely rubbish! The PM is trying to wage a war where there is none. Interestingly when democracy is at work he has a problem with that. unlike the ULP democracy is alive and well in the NDP. The brewing of the leadership issue between Sabato and Camillo is beginning to brew.PM peep in your own bowl and take your falsehoods regarding the NDP with you, Embrace yourself for the leadership struggle that will come when you try and make your foreign son leader of the ULP..

  2. Nathan 'Jolly' Green says:

    What Vincentians are looking forward to, praying for, is the end of this tyrannical dynasty. We are looking forward to honesty, decency and a leader who does not lie.

    Work and jobs, lots of foreign investment, neither of which we can expect from a leader who has linked us to such Governments as the Venezuelan, Cuban, and Iranian rubbish regimes. The real investors who want to invest, and not get a for nothing deal, stay well away while the ULP is in power.

    We want an end to spite and maliciousness, nasty name calling, suing to stifle free speech, early morning raids by political police, taking away peoples lands as a form of punishment. It will only end when the NDP are installed and the ULP are banished from our politics.

    People are fed up with it all and it really is time for a change, a complete change, not just a change of son for father.

  3. Percival Thomas says:

    Seems that the PM is more interested in the internal politics of the NDP than how he is planning to deal with the economic and social problems of SVG. What is being said here is unworthy of a PM. It is almost like commess.
    Most Vincentians want the problems facing SVG discussed by the PM
    What is he doing to reduce unemployment?
    When is he going to repair the roads in their village?
    When is he and his government go to build a new hospitat?
    When is he going to reduce poverty in SVG?
    When is he going to unite the country?
    These are the questions and others Vincentians want answers to. Not what went on in the NDP.
    This PM is begining to sound rattled. He seems to be out of touch with what is going on in the country.
    He seems tired the NDP will give him a long rest after the election.

  4. Ralph Gonsalves is right, there Housing Development in Queensbury that wasn’t taken to Parliament znd the NDP are afrsid to ask he Ralph and Julian about it.

    This is Elections Seasons, throw every thing in the Mixed and see what comes out !!

    Let the NDP be Bunch and Ralph will do them in for another 5 years!!!

  5. How many more of Vincentians will have to suffer? How many more will have to die while enduring more years of this bloated gaseous windbag and his family regime autocratic rule?

    This verbosely bloated and gaseous windbag who has turned St Vincent and the Grenadines into a beggar sister nations to Cuba and Venezuela over these past years, where Vincentians are so afraid to express an open opinion? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyTKX30F6po just watch how “Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis has only worsened under COVID-19” as we like them suffer under a similar regime.

    Surely there is a much better way forward for us than those crisis hit regimes of both Venezuela and Cuba, whose autocratic leaders too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n7mK3dYOLw Idolises and pays homage to the failed philosophy of Karl Marx.

    Must so many young Vincentians remain idle and out of work? Must so many Vincentians remain a collection of grossly poor beggars all the days of their lives?

  6. “See how the kettle is going about calling the pot Black!” an apt phrase of my grandmother that came to mind while reading the following comment of the Red-Shirted Gonsalves;

    Quote: “The white shadows in the NDP are believed to run the gamut of the financiers of the NDP, the foreign white influencers in the NDP, including those in Bequia for Lorraine Friday, those lining up to sell our country’s passport and citizenship for filthy lucre and historically, the white racists and imperialists hover about this Caribbean.” Gonsalves said that these “white shadows” “always see the NDP as their natural ally in St. Vincent and Grenadines against the ULP. “And as you know, for the ULP, Black Lives Matter,” Unum!

    And what a thing eh! Was this man thoroughly blind when he invited that fraudster David Ames to SVG and awarded him a quality Vincentian Passport? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-r4mJPt-pE really Ralph? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDZdfSGxuIA and do we remember those B.B.C and Al Jazeera investigation?

    What about that other fraudster the Canadian lawyer, William Wise, Ex-Millennium Bank Operator who was sentenced to 22 Years in Jail and who defrauded more than 1,200 people out of more than 75 million US dollars? For this red-shirted individual who loves to litigate we are yet to see the BBC in Court!
    https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=343e2537-2baa-44e1-8cb8-88f8f852cfd4

    But like the Democrats in the U.S and the Labour Party in the U.K, “Black Lives Matters” only for continued exploitation! They sure know how to brandish the race card when it pleases them but delivers precious little to the Black people.

  7. It is a sad thing when a Prime Minister has to stoop so low to put out such twisted and exaggerated information FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES!
    He somehow sees Leacock as the “weak link”, thinking he can “win him over” or make him rebel. At the same time he feels threatened by Cummings so he is trying to make Cummings feel like the rest of the party hates him. The only party that has “political” “hatchet men” is the ULP.
    Because the NDP is FAR MORE DEMOCRATIC than the ULP, he refers to it as “disunited”.
    Because Ralph runs the ULP like a tyrannical, authoritative dictatorship WHERE NONE OF THE TOP BRASS ARE ALLOWED TO PUBLICLY SAY ANYTHING THAT DOES NOT COME DIRECTLY FROM RALPH, it has caused all those people to lack the ability to make decisions. Those that have come out and said anything (not pre-approved) in public have made fools of themselves.
    All the top people in the NDP are capable decision-makers. But the ULP, with the exception of Julian Francis, NONE OF THE TOP PEOPLE IN THE ULP ARE CAPABLE OF MAKING DECISIONS FOR THEMSELVES! That includes, and particularly, his son.

    Our country is in the sorry state it is in because everything has been decided by one man who was indoctrinated into failed Marxist ideologies. If that man becomes incapacitated in some way, we are even more lost because none of the others have ever been allowed to make any decisions for themselves.

    This article proves that the NDP has BY FAR the better candidates, everyone knows this…including Ralph!..
    That is why he has come out to say these things.

  8. For real now they are out of control fighting for power it doesn’t work that way they need to humble themselves and pray if they can lash out at the Government who are u and I for them not to lash out at as well Cummings said Minister of health Luke Browne should resign or get fired is it Luke Browne that tell the nasty people not to clean in and around their homes. If the people will learn to shut up their mouths stop. Running it off on The prime minister. And clean their homes inside and out. A lot of the mosquitoes will go and will lessen the dengue fever Every thing bad happen is the PM and his cabinet when it’s is us the people that are at fault.

    All of us has to play a part in keeping our environment clean we have to do our best to help in building our country and keeping it safe at all times I strongly believe that they should start charging home owners with a hefty fine for them to take better care of their homes sometimes u can’t even drink water from some homes For the filth that has piled up some homes the dirt can burry the dead And the garbage can fill the ocean And these are the same people that are opening up their mouths running Them like river on the PM they need to stop it and clean up their homes before trying to clean up somebody’s else own these people has no shame whatsoever need to go hide in some deep hole and shut up I mean shut up really shut up .

    1. Are you sure your real name initials are not R.G.?

      Do you know the responsibilities of a person put into the top leadership position?…Or do they just get to take all the credit for everything that goes well and spend all the money and have a life of privilege? …When anything goes bad it is always someone else’s fault.

  9. Cummings is devastating to the ULP, in Healthcare as well as the failed Geothermal. No wonder our Prime Minister has removed all human decency to attack him, while these past years trying to coax Leacock into defecting because at great cost the ULP cannot seem to get the people of Central Kingstown to vote against him.
    Difference is that the NDP is Democratic; something totally unfamiliar to our PM, while in the ULP all the party heads are on short leashes, not even allowed to fart without approval and permission from Ralph.

  10. Sobato said that you have no moral authority to speak for him sobato, why do you think you can use your toxic tongue to speak for anyone in the ndp ? Like something hurting yo big belly? Talk about your accused rape charge , that is what you should be speaking about.

  11. We have never seen the Leader so frustrated with adhoc topics. This is a clear indication of their defeat! What else can they say to the voters of SVG? What can they say to the mothers whose sons fell victim to our society and were shot? what can they say to our young people who are unemployed? What can they say to our women who has to ‘sell themselves’ to feed their babies?

  12. Jennifer Peters says:

    Ralph Gonsalves you are the present PM, but the people of SVG are ready to move on; the evils of the past twenty years have infected our nation. I have to tell you, God is getting ready to step in; he has chosen Dr. Friday to be our next leader – you will not hold our nation under siege for much longer. “Your days are numbered, “RING THE BELL,” the old folks say, you sound and look like a drowning man, trying to catch a straw. Like it or not, the writing is on the wall – So RING THE BELL SAMBELLY, RING IT!!!

  13. Mr. Gonsalves legacy is one of nepotism, perpetual poverty, high unemployment, dictatorial tendencies and unimaginable suffering of the huge majority of citizens and residents.

    If ever the country needs a change of direction it’s now. Gonsales’ […] needs to end yesterday. The man has an obese ego which makes him uniquely unfit as prime minister. At the upcoming polls dhow him and his inept ministers the Exit Door.

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